New World Project

Class 8 English Name:__________________

The Giver, by Lois Lowry

Project: Your Perfect World DUE DATE:____________________

It is the year 2015.

The Earth has been destroyed. The last nuclear bomb has exploded.

When it was obvious to everyone that the war would come, a world famous scientist had filled a spacecraft with scientifically sleep-induced children. His name was Dr. Kafka.

The children ranged from pre-born embryos (in a kind of warm yellow gel) to 12-month-olds, from a wide variety of groups, from all over the world.

Years before the war, Dr. Kafka had found, orbiting a distant star, a planet that was a nearly perfect copy of Earth, the same atmosphere, plants, forests, islands, deserts, and animal life…except there were no people there. Dr. Kafka dreamed of saving the human race. With the end near, he planned to build a colony on that “sister planet” of earth. He wanted to start over from the beginning, fresh, with a generation raised in innocence, who had never heard of war, or hatred, or any of the problems on earth.

One of the children on that spaceship was my brother, Stephen, a three-month-old infant. I came aboard the ship secretly, and when the steel door slammed shut, I was taken by surprise, and trapped. The floor began to tremble. I was in a room surrounded by sleeping, dreaming young lives. The ship began to break the earth’s atmosphere just as the bombs began to fall…

I never found Stephen among the “nursing capsules” that survived take-off.

After a time, I found Dr. Kafka in another part of the ship. I was amazed; his experiments with radiation had left him sick and pale. He did not have long to live. Indeed, after four terrible months, Dr. Kafka was dead, leaving the project of designing a new way of life in my hands…

Your job is to describe the colony that Dr. Kafka dreamed of.

TEN GENERATIONS HAVE PASSED. Those children have grown up, and their children, and their children, etc. The population is in the 100’s of thousands. All your plans have succeeded! They are living in the world YOU designed, under the system YOU established.

RULE: You have access to any kind of technology that exists on our world (television, computers, etc.) BUT you DO NOT HAVE TO use it, and you CANNOT use any science fiction new technology that does not really exist.

What is the system you set up in the world that works so well? Describe:

§ Your system of laws, rules, and punishments

§ Your system of how people are educated

§ Your system for finding and choosing leaders, and how the government runs

§ Your social system & how people raise families, and find enjoyment

Those four things will be the biggest part of your planning. But you can also think of city plans, music, sports, and anything else you want to.

What will the final project look like? It has to include lots of information about how your world works…

It might be a poster, with pictures and text.
It might be a story or diary entry.
It might be a PowerPoint presentation to the class.

Project Grade:

1/3—Using time in class well when I give it to you for working (Individual Grades)

1/3—Thoughtfulness and seriousness of your ideas (Rubric: Completeness, Accuracy)

1/3—Creativity, neatness, and correctness in the English of the presentation (Rubric: Mechanics, Appearance, Use of Language)—This includes your speaking style, of you present orally.